So you want to do an evaluation with an NGO – where do you begin?

In response to an earlier blog post on marketing experiments, we noted that young creative researchers are working with NGOs to try out new innovative ways to alleviate poverty and spur development. A reader wrote with the following question:

As a young (I'd like to think creative) researcher, I would like to work with development NGOs, but I do not know the best way to approach these groups. Do you have any suggestions on how to get started in this world?

We thought we’d turn to some people who work a lot more with NGOs than we do to get their thoughts.

My advice to graduate students keen on doing field work varies greatly depending on their situation, interests, and language skills. A few paths though stand out: (a) if you're at a school with faculty doing field work, then try to get involved in a project or two that can take you to the field, and have some free time when in the field to meet with other organizations to try to develop your own research, (b) internet! When I was in graduate school, I posted on the various listservers about microfinance to find partners, and to this day I'm working with some leads that came out of those posts. (c) IPA. One of my goals in setting up Innovations for Poverty Action was to help students exactly in that situation. We have a huge network, infrastructure in many countries, great staff in the USA to help bring in new researchers and maintain high quality of field work. Email Alana Rosenberg, arosenberg@poverty-action.org, if you are interested in finding out how IPA can help you locate projects.

I’ve found that the most effective way to establish new collaborations with partners overseas is simply to go there and talk to as many people as possible. This is probably easiest to do if you are going to a country for some other kind of work such as field research with a professor. Once you are in a country working on something, it is easy to find time and make up reasons to meet with a variety of potential partners, even if the purpose of the meeting is only vaguely related to your current work. For example, my first research project in Malawi was on weather insurance. When traveling there for the work I met with a wide variety of institutions about the weather insurance project, but always made sure I devoted part of each conversation to exploring opportunities for future projects. In the years since I’ve parlayed those initial contacts into research collaborations on credit and savings.

While one needs to be careful about distractions from research, even consulting or non-academic work can be a useful foot in the door when trying to meet new organizations in a particular country. In the summer after I finished my PhD, I took on a consultancy for a think tank in El Salvador during which I visited the country and wrote a policy piece on migration and development. When gathering information to write the piece I met with a wide variety of institutions interested in migration and remittances. One of the contacts from my research there eventually became the CEO of the country’s largest bank, and was my entry-point a few years later for setting up a randomized control trial on remittances and savings among Salvadoran migrants in the U.S.

These both seem like good pieces of advice to me. Any readers from either the supply or demand side want to chime in with their ideas?

Comments

Barter... offer an NGO something you are really good at instead of simply asking for their data or their cooperation. In India, we are working with and MFI that kept records in piles in a dark corner closet. We setup a modern MIS system for them so they can easily track clients, monitor defaults, and calculate returns. The positive externality to us is that we now have a source of high-quality, dependable data. Both sides are really happy!

Thank you for publishing my question and these great responses. I wrote up a few paragraphs on how I think these comments relate to my project:
http://www.markmfredrickson.com/thoughts/2011-04-16-getting-involved-in-field-research-in-development.html
As Dean Karlan pointed out, the internet is good way to get your ideas out. This is a start.
Thanks again.